


Special Connection (?)

by detectivejigsaw



Series: Flipside AU [13]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: But at the same time interested, Discussion of Soulmates, Don't tag as ship please, Drabble, Gen, Platonic Soulmates, Stan is a skeptic, flipside AU, references to Gravity Falls: Lost Legends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:00:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24380215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/detectivejigsaw/pseuds/detectivejigsaw
Summary: Stan and Matilda have a brief discussion regarding him and Ford, and what she thinks of their relationship.Weird little drabble that just feels right for this 'verse.
Relationships: Ford Pines & Stan Pines, Stan Pines & Matilda Blerble (OC)
Series: Flipside AU [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1587223
Comments: 18
Kudos: 74





	Special Connection (?)

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Memorial Day, folks. Or Glorious 25th of May, for you Discworld fans out there.

“...and when we finally got ungrounded we tried looking for him again, but he was long gone. Ford thinks he probably went looking for a different part of Jersey to live in.”

Matilda, who had started coming into the gift shop to help out in the afternoons, was still giggling and wiping her eyes after hearing about Stan and Ford’s childhood incident with the Jersey Devil and the obnoxious Sibling Brothers; it was a slow day, so Stan had decided to regale her with his account of the story, complete with voices and elaborate gestures, and by the time he finished she was in stitches.

“Oh man…” she sighed, gasping for air and rubbing her eyes, “that almost makes me wish I’d grown up with a twin.”

“Yeah, it can be pretty great.” Stan smiled proudly at his successful entertainment, and began sorting the latest collection of broken doorknobs and single earrings that were part of their merchandise into a display case.

Matilda went back to setting up the little turnstile filled with lost keychains. “No wonder you guys are soulmates.”

Stan stopped short, and gave her a bewildered look.

“...We’re what.” His tone of voice was too flat to be a question.

“I’ve thought about the best term to describe you two, and that’s what I came up with.” She shrugged.

Stan set down his box of bent nails with a thud. “Okay, Matt, I know Ford and me are close, and some people might kinda misunderstand that, but-”

“Whoa, dude, no!” Matilda held up her hands quickly, looking disgusted. “No, gross! I’m not suggesting-no!”

Her reaction was genuine enough that Stan felt his raised hackles relax, so to speak.

“Soulmates aren’t always a romantic thing-it just means that you connect with someone on a spiritual level that you don’t with anyone else. That’s all I meant. It doesn’t have to mean anything weird.”

After a moment, Stan scoffed and turned back to his work. “There’s no such thing as soulmates.”

Matilda leaned her elbow on the counter and gave him a disbelieving stare. “Really?  _ That’s _ the anomalous thing you’re skeptical about?”

“People fall in love more than once, or have more than one best friend in their life! Nobody has just one special person who they care about more’n anyone else-!” Stan heard the words coming out of his mouth, and shut it. He glared when he saw the smirk she was giving him. “ _ That _ doesn’t mean anything.”

“How about the fact that after five years of being apart, you still loved each other and were able to repair your relationship? Or that you’re clearly at your happiest when you’re together?”

Hearing the L-word made Stan’s face feel hot, and he glared down at the tree bark. “So what? He’s my brother, that’s all.”

“And not everyone would be able to fix a relationship that had gone that sour after so long.” She sighed. “Look, there’s no way to say this that  _ won’t _ sound totally corny, but you guys have got your hearts knitted together.”

“...Whatever.”

Thankfully, at that moment a new group of tourists showed up, allowing Stan to leave the conversation.

* * *

The whole idea of soulmates honestly felt a little contrived, not to mention creepy, to Stan.

Some cosmic entity or whatever decided that you and one other person are meant to be together forever? Yeah right.

He just...wasn’t interested in living anywhere else but with Ford right now. They had a great thing going, him running most of the tour business while the nerd did his research on Gravity Falls and its weirdness, and he wasn’t interested in breaking that up anytime soon. It wasn’t like he didn’t like the idea of maybe-maybe getting married and having kids one day (he didn’t see any attempts at that turning out well for a screw-up like him, but he liked the  _ idea _ of it), he was just happy where he was right now.

It wasn’t a  _ destiny _ thing. Screw destiny. Destiny was an excuse people used to say that bad things or good things happened to you, and there was nothing you could do about it. Stan refused to let himself believe that anymore.

Not that having a soulmate was necessarily a  _ bad _ thing, the way Matilda described it. It was basically just someone who understood you better than anyone else, and who made you happy, right?

Stan shook his head at himself, and pushed the sentimental claptrap to the back of his head so he could focus on counting the day’s profits. As he worked, he absentmindedly ate from the bag of toffee peanuts that Ford had left there for him, and leaned back in the rocking chair that Ford had set up because he knew after all these years that being able to rock back and forth sometimes helped Stan to focus better, and told himself that the concept of soulmates was overrated.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm kind of with Stan on this one. I dunno if I believe in soulmates, because there are multiple people out there who it's possible to have a near-perfect, joyful relationship with. But I do believe that if anyone is soulmates, it's those two knuckleheads.


End file.
